NAME
Test::Less - Test Categorization and Subset Execution
SYNOPSIS
# Mark foo and bar tests with 4 tags
> test-less -tag slow unit 3743 gui t/foo.t t/bar.t
# Unmark t/bar.t as a gui test
> test-less -untag gui t/bar.t
# Show tags for all the tests in t/
> test-less -show t/*.t
# List the unit tests for ticket 3743, except the gui ones
> test-less -list unit,3743,^gui
# Prove (run) all gui unit tests
> test-less -prove -v gui,unit
# Same as above
> prove -l `test-less -list gui,unit`
# Without `test-less` program:
> perl -MTest::Less -e "run" -prove -l gui,unit
DESCRIPTION
Sometimes Less is More.
Test::Less really has nothing to do with Test::More. It is also not
meant to discourage you from writing lots of tests. To the contrary, it
allows you to write potentially thousands of tests, but then be
selective about which ones you run and when.
The fact is that sometimes Test::Harness testing can be slow. You don't
always want to run every test in your "t/" directory, especially if they
take an hour or more to run.
Test::Less allows you to categorize your tests with keyword tags, and
then select which group of tests should be run for the problem at hand.
COMMAND LINE USAGE
Test::Less installs a program called "test-less" in your Perl bin
directory. You use this command to tag, list and run your various groups
of tests.
"test-less" normally keeps the index file of mappings between tags and
test files, in a file called "t/Test-Less/index.txt". You can override
this with the "--file" option or the "TEST_LESS_INDEX" environment
variable.
TAGS
Tags are strings matching "/^[\w\-]+$/".
The "-list" and "-prove" commands take what is called a *tag
specification*.
A specication is a a list of tags and possibly file names.
test-less -prove foo bar baz
Runs all the foo tests, bar tests and baz tests.
test-less -prove foo,bar,baz
Runs all the tests that are foo and bar and baz.
test-less -prove foo,^bar
Runs all the tests that are foo but not bar.
test-less -prove ^foo
Runs all the tests that are in the Test-Less index file, except the foo
ones.
etc...
You can pipe the output of one command to another:
test-less -list foo | test-less -prove -
test-less -lisr foo | test-less -untag bar
PROGRAMATIC USAGE
Test::Less is object oriented, and it is very easy to use its
functionality from another program:
use Test::Less;
my $tl = Test::Less->new(
index_file => 'my_index',
);
$tl->prove('-l', '-b', 'foo,bar,^baz boom');
THE INDEX FILE
Test::Less keeps all of its tag and file mappings in a text file called
(by default) "t/Test-Less/index.txt". This file is autogenerated by
Test::Less but can be edited by hand. The file consists of comment lines
(that begin with "#") and index lines of the form:
tag file optional_comment
The index lines are written in sorted order by tag and then file. This
rather verbose format is used so that it plays nice with revision
control on projects where many people are changing the file.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
Test::Less uses some special purpose environment variables.
TEST_LESS_INDEX
The path to the index file to be used by "test-less".
TEST_LESS_COMMENT
A comment string to be added to new index entries. $d and $u are
special variables that expanf to GMT date/time and current user.
TEST_LESS_COMMENT='$d -- $u'
will expand to something like:
Jun 4 23:22:12 2005 GMT -- ingy
TIPS AND TRICKS
Here are some helpful tips from my personal experience using Test::Less.
If you have a helpful tip, please send it to me, and I'll include it
here.
Go ahead and check in the "index.txt" file into your code repository and
"MANIFEST" file. It is useful info that other people can use if they
want to.
When working on a bug fix from an RT ticket, use the ticket number as a
tag. Like 2143 or "rt2143".
Feel free to hand edit the "index.txt" file.
Consider using the following shell aliases or something equivalent:
alias tl='test-less'
alias tlp='test-less -prove'
alias tlt='test-less -tag'
etc...
AUTHOR
Brian Ingerson
COPYRIGHT
Copyright (c) 2005. Brian Ingerson. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the same terms as Perl itself.
See http://www.perl.com/perl/misc/Artistic.html